BASKETBALL

BASKETBALL; Houston Urges McDyess Not to Rush His Return

By LIZ ROBBINS

Published: November 29, 2003

Antonio McDyess has missed the last 116 games of his career, dating from March 20, 2002, when he was with the Denver Nuggets. He will miss his 117th this afternoon when the Knicks play host to the New Orleans Hornets at Madison Square Garden.

So what's one more game? That was Allan Houston's point to McDyess when Houston spoke with him recently about not rushing his return to the lineup.

McDyess said Wednesday that he was aiming for Monday's home game against the Detroit Pistons as the first time he would play in a Knicks uniform since fracturing his left kneecap in an exhibition game last October.

He will scrimmage tomorrow and will most likely make a decision Monday morning. But McDyess, a soft-spoken power forward who has admitted to being concerned about being ready to return to the rigors of the N.B.A., was careful to qualify that date as indefinite.

Houston wanted McDyess to feel certain.

''I'm excited about him being sure of when he wants to play,'' Houston said after the Pacers drubbed the Knicks, 93-70, in Indianapolis on Thursday night to snap their three-game winning streak. ''When I talked to him, I was like, 'Whenever you're ready, my advice was to take one more game.' If you think you're ready, sit out that game and take the next one because the next time you'll be that much more sure.''

Although the Knicks (6-10) had hoped to stay around .500 until McDyess's return, their three-game winning streak over the past week seems to have alleviated some of the urgency for him to return.

McDyess has spent two years rehabilitating from three knee operations, missing a total of 170 games. He, too, wants to ensure that all the circumstances are right.

Houston said: ''You don't want to be out there after this amount of time thinking, 'Am I ready?' '' For him, it's just so important to eliminate anything negative when he's playing in his first game, to give himself a chance to grow. And if that means being on the road, so what?''

The Knicks open a five-game Western Conference road swing in Seattle on Wednesday. ''We need him when he's ready,'' Dikembe Mutombo said.

The Knicks have been learning to win not only without McDyess, but also without Houston or Keith Van Horn, their two leading scorers. Houston sat out two games with a sore back, and Van Horn has missed six games with a sprained right ankle. The Knicks have gone 3-3 in Van Horn's absence.

Van Horn is listed as questionable for today's game. He had treatment yesterday and worked out.

McDyess has participated in only three 5-on-5 scrimmages but has been running through plays and engaging in 3-on-3 games after practice.

''He's ready, physically,'' Houston said, ''but mentally is much more important than physically. That's the part that a lot of people don't understand unless you play this game. You play at such a high level, you can't go out there unsure at all. You have to know that everything's fine, because it will show.''

Even if McDyess does play Monday against Detroit, he does not expect to make much of an impact. ''Regardless, it's going to be a limited time,'' he said. ''For me, it doesn't matter because I just want to get on the court.''

With the Hornets and the Pistons, the Knicks will play two of the top teams in the East. They had their worst offensive night of the season against Indiana -- the team with the best record and the longest winning streak (seven) in the league.

The 23-point defeat at Indiana came after confidence-building victories against Philadelphia, Boston and Minnesota in which the Knicks averaged 96.7 points a game. The emotional victory over Latrell Sprewell and the Timberwolves seemed to drain them for the Pacers' game. ''You can't let one game take you on the wrong path,'' Houston said.

Houston wanted his teammates to recapture the defensive intensity they had shown during the winning streak.

Doing so would make a big difference, Houston said, one that could smooth the path for McDyess and give the team confidence in the next segment of the season.